The judge said that on August 8 and 9 much of the centre of Birmingham was ransacked. He told Khan: “You chose, when you did not need to, to come into the city centre. You chose then to persist in your efforts to go into Blacks where the staff did sterling work to try and prevent you.

“I accept that you did not get much further than the foyer and that you did not, in fact, take any property. That was because of the resilience of those that tried deter you, people who were taking responsibility and trying to protect their own livelihoods.”

The judge said he had taken into account Khan’s early guilty plea but added that the defendant was someone who had “committed crimes in public in the past”.

Balbir Singh, defending said: “He went into the shop and was looking around but he did not make any persistent attempt to steal.”

He claimed that he was then grabbed by officers and was struck by police batons.